HYPHEN
WORDNET DICTIONARY
CIDE DICTIONARY
OXFORD DICTIONARY
DEVIL DICTIONARY
THESAURUS
ROGET THESAURUS
executive
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun executive has 3 senses
- executive(n = noun.person) executive director - a person responsible for the administration of a business; Array is a kind of administrator, decision maker
- executive(n = noun.group) Array - persons who administer the law; Array is a member of authorities, government, regime
- executive(n = noun.person) administrator - someone who manages a government agency or department; Array has particulars: commissioner, dci, director of central intelligence, prefect, secretary general, triumvir, raffles, sir thomas raffles, sir thomas stamford raffles, peter stuyvesant, petrus stuyvesant, stuyvesant
has particulars: business executive, corporate executive, government minister, minister, rainmaker, surgeon general, v.p., vice president
is a kind of administration, brass, establishment, governance, governing body, organisation, organization
has particulars: bush administration, clinton administration, bush administration, reagan administration, carter administration
is a kind of chief, head, top dog
Adjective executive has 1 sense
- executive(a = adj.pert) Array - having the function of carrying out plans or orders etc.; "the executive branch" Derived forms verb execute3, verb execute5, verb execute4
CIDE DICTIONARY
- Designed or fitted for execution, or carrying into effect; as, executive talent; qualifying for, concerned with, or pertaining to, the execution of the laws or the conduct of affairs; as, executive power or authority; executive duties, officer, department, etc. [1913 Webster]" In government,
executive is distinguished fromlegislative andjudicial ;legislative being applied to the organ or organs of government which make the laws;judicial , to that which interprets and applies the laws;executive , to that which carries them into effect or secures their due performance." [1913 Webster] - of or pertaining to an executive{2} or to the group of executives within an organization; as, executive compensation increased more rapidly than wages in the 1980's; the executive suite. [PJC]
- An impersonal title of the chief magistrate or officer who administers the government, whether king, president, or governor; the governing person or body. [1913 Webster]
- a person who has administrative authority over an organization or division of an organization; a manager, supervisor or administrator at a high level within an organization; as, all executives of the company were given stock options [PJC]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
--n.
1 a person or body with managerial or administrative responsibility in a business organization etc.; a senior businessman.
2 a branch of a government or organization concerned with executing laws, agreements, etc., or with other administration or management.
--adj.
1 concerned with executing laws, agreements, etc., or with other administration or management.
2 relating to or having the function of executing.
DEVIL DICTIONARY
executive
n. An officer of the Government, whose duty it is to enforce the wishes of the legislative power until such time as the judicial department shall be pleased to pronounce them invalid and of no effect. Following is an extract from an old book entitled, _The Lunarian Astonished_ -- Pfeiffer & Co., Boston, 1803:
LUNARIAN: Then when your Congress has passed a law it goes
directly to the Supreme Court in order that it may at once be
known whether it is constitutional?
TERRESTRIAN: O no; it does not require the approval of the
Supreme Court until having perhaps been enforced for many
years somebody objects to its operation against himself -- I
mean his client. The President, if he approves it, begins to
execute it at once.
LUNARIAN: Ah, the executive power is a part of the legislative.
Do your policemen also have to approve the local ordinances
that they enforce?
TERRESTRIAN: Not yet -- at least not in their character of
constables. Generally speaking, though, all laws require the
approval of those whom they are intended to restrain.
LUNARIAN: I see. The death warrant is not valid until signed by
the murderer.
TERRESTRIAN: My friend, you put it too strongly; we are not so
consistent.
LUNARIAN: But this system of maintaining an expensive judicial
machinery to pass upon the validity of laws only after they
have long been executed, and then only when brought before the
court by some private person -- does it not cause great
confusion?
TERRESTRIAN: It does.
LUNARIAN: Why then should not your laws, previously to being
executed, be validated, not by the signature of your
President, but by that of the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court?
TERRESTRIAN: There is no precedent for any such course.
LUNARIAN: Precedent. What is that?
TERRESTRIAN: It has been defined by five hundred lawyers in three
volumes each. So how can any one know?